Croatia will respect until the end the agreed policy of NATO's operations in Afghanistan and Croatian troops will stay there until 2015 as agreed, Croatian Defence Minister Ante Kotromanovic said on Sunday.
"We have decided to stay (in Afghanistan) until 2015, like all other NATO members," he told reporters in Chicago ahead of a NATO summit.
Croatia has an exit strategy and it has been decided that in 2013 and 2014 it will downsize a little its troops in NATO missions in that country, the minister said. "We are pursuing the policy we agreed in Lisbon, 'To get in - to get out', and we will honour it through."
Kotromanovic is in Chicago as part of a Croatian delegation, led by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and General Drago Lovric, which is attending NATO's biggest summit ever, with about 60 participating countries and organisations. Its topic is the future of Afghanistan.
On Saturday night, Milanovic met with the Croatian community in Chicago. Ahead of the summit, he is scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
